Dr. Rick Hodes and Jennifer Kraft. (Steve Peterson, Special to The Denver Post)

It’s all too easy to ignore problems that are literally a world away. Let someone else worry about sick or starving children, abject poverty or remote villages where the water is polluted and drought has ruined another year’s crops. We have jobs, carpool, spa dates and hair appointments that keep us on the run … who has the time to deal with it?

Dr. Rick Hodes, for starters. The Johns Hopkins-trained internist went to Ethiopia in the mid-1980s to help victims of the famine — and never left. Likewise, Noel and Tammy Cunningham, the owners of Strings restaurant in Denver, have never been able to turn a blind eye to things like poverty, hunger and insufficient medical resources. And instead of just shaking their heads or wringing their hands, they actually take steps to alleviate it.

Noel Cunningham was a founder, 23 years ago, of Taste of the Nation, a fundraiser embraced by the restaurant industry nationwide that has raised $78 million for agencies working to end hunger and poverty. He hosts an annual Mother’s Day brunch for low-income seniors whose families cannot or do not spend time with them. And he closes the restaurant for one night every year so that Project PAVE can have its Secret Chefs dinner.

The couple’s interest in combating hunger led them to Ethiopia, where they were profoundly affected by both the extreme need and the spirit of the people. They’ve brought money and supplies, and rolled up their sleeves to help build homes, schools and wells.

On one of their visits they met Dr. Hodes, medical director in Ethiopia for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and an attending physician at the Mother Teresa Mission in Addis Ababa, treating children with heart disease, spine disease and cancer. None have the money to pay for their care.

He does much more than give them a shot or a pill and send them on their way. He has legally adopted five of the children, all of whom received life-saving surgeries in the United States. He also cares for up to 20 foster children at a time.

Last Thursday night, 950 people came to the Sheraton Denver Downtown for A Dinner of Unconditional Love, which raised about $500,000 for Hodes’ work in Ethiopia. Hodes and two of his children — Mesfin and Dejene — were there for the event that Noel Cunningham chaired with Jennifer Kraft and Elaine Gantz Berman. The Bermans are friends of Hodes, and Steve Bermany, a pediatrician who is director of the University of Colorado’s Center for Global Health, helped arrange the free surgery that one of Hodes’ young patients, Akewak Behailu Wondimu, received last year at The Children’s Hospital in Aurora.

The crowd included many of Denver’s most prominent — and caring — souls: Bill and Jeannie Ritter, who’d delayed the start of the first real real vacation they’d had in the four years he was Colorado’s governor so they could be there with a couple of their children; developer/philanthropist Larry Mizel and his wife, Carol; Allied Jewish Federation president Doug Seserman; national JDC board member Joyce Zeff; developer Robert Loup and his wife, Robyn; Walt Imhoff; Celeste and Jack Grynberg; Sally, John, Martha, Tom, Margie and Ken Gart; and Kim Schneider Malek and Charles Malek, who’d opened their home to Akewak Wondimu while he was in Denver for his surgery.

The JDC’s chief executive, Steve Schwager, was there, too, as was Marilyn Berger, who wrote a book about Hodes, “This Is A Soul.” Regis University president Michael Sheeran conferred an honorary doctor of humanitarian medicine degree on Hodes and Prudence Mabhena of Zimbabwe, subject of an Academy Award winning documentary, “Music by Prudence,” sang “Amazing Grace” and the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love.”

Prudence, 21, was born with arthrogryposis, a “cruel” disorder that left her with, among other things, no legs, badly twisted arms and a spine bent permanently forward. She is being evaluated for corrective surgery at The Children’s Hospital.

“They are going to save my life,” she happily told everyone.

Others there to support the cause were Rabbi Steve Foster; Bev Sloan, Andy Levy and Keri Christiansen from The Denver Hospice; Amy Venturi; Colorado State University chancellor Joe Blake; Judy and Ken Robins; Mile High United Way chief Christine Benero; Denver City Councilwoman Carol Boigon; Lisa and Rich Cohn; attorney Dan Muse; Harriet and Dr. Donald Aptekar; Lyn and Dr. Michael Schaffer; bankers Jay Davidson and Nick Lepetsos; Doug Jackson of Project CURE; Goodwill Industries vice president Mike Pritchard and his wife, Marcia; liquor distributor Michael Geller; David Miller, president of the Denver Foundation, and his wife, Rose Community Foundation VP Lisa Farber Miller; Josh Hanfling; Elaine and Dr. Richard Asarch; Jim White from Volunteers of America; Galloway Group’s Jean Galloway; Barbara Grogan with daughter Holly Goodreau; restaurateur Michael Ditchfield; Dawn Nakamura Kessler and her husband, Dr. Randy Kessler; and attorney Sheldon Friedman, who seemed to sum it up for everyone when he said: “This is one good cause we can all be proud of. I know I’m so impressed that I’m almost on my way to Ethiopia.”

Noel Cunningham, though, said it best when he shared with the audience that “One of the dreams that I have is that when we leave here tonight, we will leave filled with the same kind of unconditional love that Dr. Rick has. So when you see a stranger, look him in the eye, not at the ground. He won’t bite.”

Study after study has shown that when it comes to charitable fundraisers, Denver has more per capita than any comparably sized city in the nation. Joanne Davidson has been covering them for The Denver Post since 1985, coming here from her native California where she'd spent the previous seven years as San Francisco bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report magazine.